


Maddeningly polite

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Dark Will, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 00:27:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7553071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal is being maddeningly polite, and Will feels left out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maddeningly polite

“When life becomes maddeningly polite, think about me. Think about me, Will. Don’t worry about me.”  
Hannibal to Will.

Hannibal doesn’t love me anymore, thinks Will as his former psychiatrist plays polite host to a dinner party in their new home.  
He doesn’t meet Will’s eyes like he used to, nor does he speak to him unless he absolutely has to.  
He’s polite, maddeningly so.  
He’s polite when they once slew a dragon and bathed in his blood in the glorious moonlight, polite when he once gutted Will for his betrayal and killed their pseudo-daughter.  
Those were acts born of passion, desperate expressions of thwarted love.  
Will tried to kill them, and now he aches in Hannibal’s chilly company.  
He is dressed in clothes bought by Hannibal, and his facial scarring is light thanks to surgery paid for by the man too.  
Hannibal wants him to be well, and alone.  
It tears him up inside.

*  
Will is a changed man; he can’t go back to Jack’s employ or Molly’s arms anymore than he could fly.  
There’s nothing and no one but Hannibal for him.

*  
After the guests leave one of them lingers, he’s an accountant, a recent divorce.  
He speaks of his daughter’s charms in a very possessive way.  
Hannibal nods meaningfully for the first time in months, and Will knows he’s playing a game.  
He knows the rules to this one.  
“Are you lovers?” asks the man, Tom, and Will flinches.  
“Yes,” says Hannibal and Will wonders where this is going.  
“Thought so,” says Tom. “You have that vibe. Used to have it with my wife till she left.”  
“I’m sorry,” says Will.  
“Don’t be. The bitch took all my money, and she turned my daughter against me.”  
Hannibal smiles. “My dear Will,” he says and that’s how Will knows. The use of his true name is a clear sign.  
“Will? I thought he had another name?” says Tom foolishly.  
“He does now,” says Hannibal. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  
“Are you quoting the bard at me?” asks Will.  
“Yes. Never a better time my dear.”  
“Why have you been so distant?” asks Will and Tom thinks all he’s going to be witness to is a domestic argument between two well-mannered men of means.  
“You had to atone for trying to kill us. Now I forgive you.”  
“Do you?”  
“I do, my love. “  
“Shall you do the honors?”  
“I have greater experience and you have much to learn. So, yes.”  
Hannibal produces a knife and slits Tom’s throat like he did poor Abigail’s in his kitchen.  
Tom dies quickly, gasping vainly for air.  
“You made a mess of our kitchen,” says Will.  
“We will clean up together,” says Hannibal.  
They do.

*  
“So am I truly forgiven?” says Will.  
“Of course. I would have you for a husband,”  
“Are you proposing with a dead man in our cellar, his blood still on your hands?”  
“Yes. This is who we are.”  
“Then I will,” says Will. “Now let’s go to bed.”  
“I thought you’d never ask,” says Hannibal and kisses him, the world now at their feet.


End file.
